The present invention relates to surgical staple removers or extractors for extracting surgical staples from a patient.
Surgical staples provide an efficient and secure means for closing a surgical opening at the conclusion of a surgical procedure. Surgical staples have become quite popular with the medical profession for numerous reasons which need not be elaborated on herein. Suffice it to say that the surgical staple is a preferred method of closing surgical sites. The staples must be removed at an appropriate time and thereby create the need for a surgical staple remover to quickly and efficiently remove staples from a patient without injuring the partially healed wound or patient.
A number of surgical staple extractors have been devised which generally function to remove staples from a surgical site. These removers work in a basic scissoring action to deform the staple by driving at least a portion of the staple downwardly between an anvil and two opposed jaws. A problem arises with prior art surgical staple extractors such that the interaction between the anvil, jaws, and staple may scrape the staple material, forming metal filings or shavings which may drop onto or into the surgical site. Furthermore, the force required to actuate or operate the prior art surgical staple extractors is unpredictable and as such may cause problems for the medical professional extracting staples from a patient.
A wide variety of materials are used in the manufacturing of surgical staples. Prior art staple extractors generally do not accommodate the wide variety of staple materials. As such, a given extractor may perform unpredictably when used to extract a staple, the material of which was not considered when designing the extractor. In this regard, the prior art staple extractors may provide either two much rigidity in the jaws or too little rigidity in the jaws.
For example, one form of staple extractor referred to as Proximate staple remover, produced by Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company, is formed of a rigid metallic material. The jaws on the Ethicon remover generally provide no outward deflection of the jaws. This type of staple extractor may produce shavings from the staple or may deform the staple in an undesirable manner. Another form of staple extractor produced by Weck Company employs metallic jaws retained on an axle extending from a plastic handle arrangement. The jaws while flexible, are not positively cammed outwardly upon removing a staple, and any flexing which may occur is random and uncontrolled and will occur only after the staple is virtually fully removed. These prior art designs while employing somewhat similar anvil and jaw structures do not utilize the hereafter described cam means and associated structures of the present invention, nor do they teach the novel assembly of the present invention.
As another consideration in staple extracting, it would be desirable to extract the staples by reforming or deforming the staples in approximately the same path in which they were inserted into the patient'issue in the surgical site. In other words, while the prior art staple extractor removes staples frommthe surgical site, they may tend to remove staples in a path which is slightly different from the path in which the staples were inserted. In this regard, the slightly different extraction path will cause tissue trauma or adversely affect the healing incision in the surgical site.
For the forgoing reasons, there is a need for a surgical staple extractor which operates with a predictable operating force, reforms the staple by following a preferred staple reforming path, and controllably spreads the jaws a desired distance.